By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Tuesday, November 3, 2015
I am still catching up from two weeks of vacation.I missed some Atlanta TV-related news while I was gone. Here's a quick summary of some of what happened. (I will do separate bits on news related to "Real Housewives of Atlanta" and "The Walking Dead.")
Former Atlantan Raven Symone is new to ABC's "The View," but critics are already wanting her off the show for various controversial comments.
A petition to get her booted drew 100,000 names in less than two days and was up to 132,000 as of Tuesday morning.
But ABC released a statement Monday supporting Symone: "We love Raven. She is confident, genuine and opinionated, all qualities that make her a great addition to the panel."
Among comments that riled some:
- "I'm not about to hire you if your name is Watermelondrea. It's just not going to happen," she said last month on the show, referencing some black names. She later apologized, saying she "lacked empathy."
- She got into a tense argument with Candace Cameron Bure about religious liberty in July, supporting same-sex marriage.
- She defended a Univision host who said first lady Michelle Obama "looks like she's from the cast of 'Planet of the Apes' " in March.
- After an officer body-slammed a teen female in a South Carolina school captured on video, Symone said: "You can enjoy school, but you have to understand authority. You have to understand that we're in a violent situation right now. My mom always taught me: I was born this color, I'm gonna have to deal with the things that are happening, and you come together and work it out. But when I'm in a situation, I definitely don't want to cause worse things to happen to me. It sucks sometimes."
The show went through major cast turnover last season and saw ratings tumble. Numbers have stabilized this fall, according to Variety, averaging about 2.5 million viewers.
***
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
The Weather Company announced a split last week.
IBM is picking up everything but the TV division, including the popular weather.com and app. (Colleague Mike Kanell covered it last week.)
Why IBM? The company deals nowadays mostly business to business and the Atlanta-based company helps said businesses with weather forecasts to help them operate more efficiently. About two-thirds of the Weather Company's 1,400 employees are based in Atlanta. About the same percentage will become IBM employees.
How this will manifest itself at Atlanta headquarters has not been hashed out. The TV channel, which is struggling to draw audience in a day and age when more people go to their smartphone for weather forecasts, will remain with NBC Universal and private equity firms Blackstone Group and Bain Capital.
***
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Atlanta talk show host, game show host and author Steve Harvey is getting into... bacon? He is hawking a new Easy Bacon product, which cooks in two minutes. He introduced it two week ago at the Park Tavern with Mayor Kasim Reed. My colleague Jennifer Brett handled it.
***
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Savannah's food doyenne Paula Deen, not surprisingly, was the fourth dancer out on "Dancing With the Stars" two weeks ago. She was the last of the weaker dancers and was so far off the mark compared to the other remaining celebrities, there was no way her fan base could keep her around. (Judges' votes are half the score and fan votes are the other half.)
But she certainly did as good a job as would be expected. She showed enthusiasm and passable form given her age and dexterity.
***
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Sam Champion, whose efforts to jump start mornings at the Weather Channel here in Atlanta didn't pan out after he joined the station in late 2013, will be going back to New York to host a new weekly prime-time show for the network.
His final day on "AMHQ" was November 2. Jim Cantore and Stephanie Abrams were hosting on Tuesday morning. The prime-time show is set to begin in January, 2016.
The Wrap reported: "The yet-unnamed program, which Champion described as a conversational format, will be hiring producers and air from New York. It'll tentatively have three or four guest interviews an hour ranging from scientists to older and younger minds who are "leading change."
The Daily News wrote that he tried to go back ABC News but they said there was no openings for him there.
Champion never fully embedded himself into Atlanta. His husband Ruben Robierb is based out of Miami and Champion would frequently spend his weekends there.
***
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
VH1's "Hindsight," which shot its first season in Atlanta and featured a woman who got to relive her life again in 1995, was originally renewed for a second season. Production was to move to Los Angeles after VH1 won a tax credit lottery. But the show has been cancelled as VH1 changed its priorities. While I liked the show, it felt like a misfit with what VH1 focuses on nowadays. And a similar show on TVLand "Younger" was better.
***
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Atlanta-based TBS's efforts to find a genuine comedic scripted hit continue to flounder. Its latest effort "Clipped" was axed after just one season.
The comedy starred Ashley Tisdale ("High School Musical"), George Wendt ("Cheers") and Mike Castle and was set in a Boston-area barbershop. The show averaged about 1.2 to 1.3 million overnight viewers.
The new TBS boss Kevin Reilly has vowed more adventurous comedy offerings in the future. One, "The Detour," starring Jason Jones, was shot in Atlanta and will debut next year.
***
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
This item has nothing to do with Atlanta but I just like the show: Fox's "The Grinder" starring Rob Lowe and Fred Savage has received a full season despite modest ratings against ABC's "Fresh Off the Boat."
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Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Atlanta-based TruTV plans to cut its commercial ad time to 10 to 11 minutes per hour from 18 to 19 minutes next fall, a radical move to say the least.
This would make it the lowest ad load of any cable or broadcast network. It will raise rates in what it calls a "premium" ad environment but will this move create commensurate or greater overall revenues for TruTV? We shall see.
The network has managed to draw a younger audience this past year with shows such as "Impractical Jokers," "The Carbonaro Effect" and "Billy on the Street."
***
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
NBC's 'Constantine," which lasted one season in Atlanta, should have been on basic cable, said creator David S. Goyer.
“We almost doubled our numbers in DVR numbers, but they weren’t quite there in network television in counting those metrics,” he said. “If it had been on a basic cable channel, it could still be on.”
But the primary character, played by Matt Ryan (no, not the Falcons quarterback), isn't totally dead in TV land. The occult detective, according to Variety, will appear in the Nov. 4 episode of the CW's "Arrow."
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